Grammar

Part 1: Nominal declensions

Strong masculine and neuter declensions

1. The general strong masculine and neuter declension

This is the most numerous class of nouns. Neuter nouns and masculine nouns of this class share many similarities of declension, to the point where it is sometimes impossible to tell from our surviving corpus whether a particular noun was in fact masculine or neuter.

The inflectional endings are the following:

Masculine

Singular

Plural

Nominative

ø

-as

Accusative

ø

-as

Genitive

-es

-a

Dative

-e

-um

Neuter

Singular

Plural

Nominative

ø

ø or -u

Accusative

ø

ø or -u

Genitive

-es

-a

Dative

-e

-um

Monosyllabic neuter nouns have the null ending (ø) in the nominative and accusative plural if they are heavy-stemmed, that is, if their stem-syllable (a.k.a. root-syllable) either has a long vowel or ends in a cluster of more than one consonant sound, and they have the ending -u if they are light-stemmed (i.e. have a short vowel and end in only one consonant sound). Polysyllabic neuter nouns most often follow the heavy-stemmed pattern, unless they are a) compound words in which the last element is a light-stemmed neuter monosyllabic noun or b) certain disyllabic words where the first syllable is heavy (has a long vowel or ends in a cluster of more than one consonant sound).

The endings given in this and the following tables of this section are those of classical Old English; late in the period (so in much of the surviving corpus) the tendency to remove stress from inflectional endings results in uncertainty of pronunciation, so the –u ending of neuter nouns in particular is often spelled as –o or –a, and the –um of the dative plural of both masculines and neuters as –an, with more sporadic alteration of the other endings, such as –as for –es and vice versa.

The largest class of a-stem nouns simply follow the paradigm above by adding these endings to the root or stem according to the following pattern:

Masculine stān (stone)

Singular

Plural

Nominative

stān

stānas

Accusative

stān

stānas

Genitive

stānes

stāna

Dative

stāne

stānum

Neuter long-stemmed word (word, speech, etc.)

Singular

Plural

Nominative

word

word

Accusative

word

word

Genitive

wordes

worda

Dative

worde

wordum

Neuter short-stemmed scip (ship)

Singular

Plural

Nominative

scip

scipu

Accusative

scip

scipu

Genitive

scipes

scipa

Dative

scipe

scipum

Variations

1) Nouns with the short vowel æ in the stem change this to a in the plural:

Masculine hwæl (whale)

Singular

Plural

Nominative

hwæl

hwalas

Accusative

hwæl

hwalas

Genitive

hwæles

hwala

Dative

hwæle

hwalum

Neuter fæt (cup, vessel)

Singular

Plural

Nominative

fæt

fatu

Accusative

fæt

fatu

Genitive

fætes

fata

Dative

fæte

fatum

2) Nouns whose stems end in an -h lose it before vowels:

Masculine mearh (horse)

Singular

Plural

Nominative

mearh

mearas

Accusative

mearh

mearas

Genitive

mēares

meara

Dative

meare

mearum

Neuter feorh (life)

Singular

Plural

Nominative

feorh

feorh

Accusative

feorh

feorh

Genitive

feores

feora

Dative

feore

feorum

3) Many disyllabic nouns lose the vowel of the second syllable when an inflectional ending adds a syllable:

Masculine fugol (bird)

Singular

Plural

Nominative

fugol

fuglas

Accusative

fugol

fuglas

Genitive

fugles

fugla

Dative

fugle

fuglum

Neuter hēafod (head)

Singular

Plural

Nominative

hēafod

hēafdu

Accusative

hēafod

hēafdu

Genitive

hēafdes

hēafda

Dative

hēafde

hēafdum

4) Nouns ending in –e in the nominative/accusative singular work the same way as the general case except that the –e ending is replaced by the inflectional endings elsewhere in the paradigm (rather than having those endings added after the –e).